Nuclear Safety
Potential Security Weaknesses at Los Alamos and Other DOE Facilities Gao ID: RCED-91-12 October 11, 1990Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined: (1) the adequacy of security at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and other Department of Energy (DOE) facilities; (2) DOE oversight of contractor security forces; and (3) the feasibility of establishing federal security forces at DOE facilities.
GAO found that: (1) DOE did not assess the adequacy of the replacement force at Los Alamos until 6 weeks after contractor personnel went on strike; (2) during the strike, DOE waived medical and physical fitness requirements for the replacement force, and many personnel failed to meet 1 or more of the 12 minimum required skills; (3) DOE sites were not prepared for such strikes; (4) security force training and certification documents were incomplete, inaccurate, or missing, indicating that potential security problems existed; (5) 75 percent of the regular security force lacked one or more of nine skills needed to ensure a minimum level of protection; (6) DOE inspections identified recurring and similar weaknesses, yet rated only one security program as unsatisfactory; (7) DOE lacked specific criteria for rating facility security; (8) DOE lacked an effective system to track corrective actions taken as a result of inspection findings; (9) contractors provided security forces at all but one DOE facility; and (10) labor and benefit costs for a federal security force would be at least $15 million less per year than contract costs, and federal employees could not legally strike.
RecommendationsOur recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.
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